Remember our principal Peter Lee’s epic adventure in 2018, when he walked the length of Britain with his wife Val? It’s now become the basis for a new seminar series, called “The Long Walk of Life – Seven Steps to Achieving your Goals and Making Work Optional”.
Over 40 minutes, Peter traces the story of a Grand Adventure, filled with pictures and anecdotes. At its heart, it’s about the things people need to think about when planning for financial independence, but seen in a new and more interesting light.
Developed initially for clients of an accounting firm, it’s since been expanded into an engaging seminar series for members of Chartered Accountants ANZ, the main professional body for accountants. With two presentations already made to nearly 200 attendees around New Zealand, and others in the pipeline, Peter reports that the response has been wonderful. “They really relate to the concept of ‘making work optional’, he says. “They also want to know ‘what’s next?’”
And that cow? One of the seven steps is that to achieve anything, we have to “learn to manage risk.” Whether it’s walking a long distance or making an investment, there are risks we understand and can manage. But it’s the less obvious ones that can derail us. To illustrate this, at one point Peter shows a picture of a herd of cows, pressed tightly against the fence, with the tagline – from the Telegraph newspaper – “Britain’s most dangerous large animal”. It gets a laugh, but as Peter points out, on average one walker is killed every year in the UK by cows. That’s not the sort of risk you associate with a walk!
Humorous, yes, but the point is that it’s the unseen risks that can derail things. In our financial lives, there are many of these, and one of the value-adds that a good adviser brings is helping clients understand what these might be and what they can do to manage them.
If you’d like to find out more about the Seven Steps and attend a seminar – or host one yourself – please get in touch.
